The University of Toronto Varsity Blues baseball team hits the road to defend their title at the 2018 OUA Championships, October 19-21, in Ajax, Ont.
 
U of T are the reigning champions after going 3-0 at last year's championship, including an 8-3 victory over the Laurier Golden Hawks in the gold-medal game. The Blues will square off in Pool B of the tournament with a No. 3 seed following a 12-6 regular season record. 
 
Toronto's playoff round robin begins on Friday, October 19 as they take on the No. 6 Western Mustangs at 2:30 p.m. The Blues then take on the No. 2 Brock Badgers (9:30 a.m.) and No. 7 McMaster Marauders (2:30 p.m.) on Saturday.  The top teams in each of the three pools advance along with the next best record advancing from Pool A or B.
 
U of T's offence was one of the best in the province, averaging just over seven runs per game. Roy Suzuki, Gabriel Nakonechny, Tanner Young-Schultz and Joe Woods have been major contributors this season. Suzuki was tied for the league lead in home runs with four on the season, while Nakonechny led the league in steals with 19. Both Suzuki and Nakonechny co-led the league with 26 hits as well.
 
Toronto's pitching corps has been strong all season. The starting rotation of Mateos Kekatos (1.09), Dean Christidis (0.92), Alex Tabascio (1.29) and veteran Peter Nash (2.92) all had a sub-3.00 ERA.
 
They have recently put up impressive numbers against their upcoming competition. Kekatos gave up one run through seven innings, while striking out seven in an 11-1 thumping of Brock. Tobascio followed it up in Game 2 of the doubleheader, pitching five and a third innings of one-run ball. In the final game of the regular season, Christidis went six strong, only allowing one run in a 12-1 win over McMaster. Closer, Grant Shantz, has also been lights out, only giving up one run and three hits in 11 innings of work on the season.
 
A pitcher and first basemen, Kekatos will be relied upon throughout the weekend. In the regular season, the second-year kinesiology major has gone 5-0 with a 1.09 ERA through 33 innings of work to go with 37 strikeouts.
 
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